White Not White

Kazimir Malevich’s White on White marks a foundational moment in the history of painting — one of the first instances in which painting allowed itself to detach from the visible world and abandon representation altogether. Despite the mystical dimension of Suprematism, Malevich’s painting remains deeply material, with the layered texture of paint clearly visible on the canvas. Even the square in White on White is not perfectly geometric, but subtly trapezoidal in form. In the series White Not White, I return to the purified aesthetics of form and translate them into contemporary materials. Over a long period of time, I collected discarded cigarette packs from the street and extracted their inner papers, usually white or silver. The works are collages composed from these materials. I created three variations, each based on a different combination of white and silver papers. The series brings together the abstract and the concrete through found urban materials, transforming them into clean abstract forms. This gesture invites reflection on smoking culture, consumerism and its residue, on “low” and “high” materials, and on the place of aesthetics and abstract art within these systems.